Now that 2014 is officially behind us, it’s a good chance to look back at all that happened in video games — some good, some bad, some provocative.

We publish a lot of features here at GameFront, and sometimes our favorites get overlooked. In an effort to show off the articles we’re most proud of from last year, we’re happy to present – in no particular order — our choices for GameFront’s 10 best features of 2014.

No-Win Situation: The Troubled History of Firefall

This three part series digs into what happened with the “restructuring” of Red 5 Studios and the long-running development of its MMO shooter, Firefall. After speaking with a number of former studio employees, our Phil Hornshaw put together a profile of life at the studio that chronicled the saga of Firefall’s development, including the founding of the company, the roller-coaster ride of investment and missed goals, and the eventual ouster of Mark Kern as chief executive officer.

Steam sales are the savior of every gamer’s collection, and the bane of every gamer’s wallet. In an effort to help you make those crucial decisions on whether or not to buy that game on Steam, we created this handy flowchart. It takes into account not only the price of the game, but several other factors as well.

After the release of Destiny, GameFront Senior Editor Phil Hornshaw got heavily involved in Bungie’s online shooter. As he progressed through the game, he documented his experiences in a series called The Destiny Diaries. The best of those diaries was the second one, in which Phil talks about the the Crucible, Destiny’s player vs. player.

His love/hate relationship with the PvP, combined with his realization that you should play it it justlike Halo, makes this the highlight of the series.

GameFront Editor-in-Chief Janelle Bonanno teamed up with Ryan Morrison, a practicing attorney in New York specializing in video game and technology law who is often found answering gaming legal questions on Reddit as “VideoGameAttorney,” to talk about the trademark battle surrounding The Banner Saga and King.com’s Candy Crush Saga. In this feature, they explain what trademark is, how it works, and what it really means to video games. What did this trademark battle mean in the long run? Click the link to find out!

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/gamefronts-10-best-features-of-2014/feed/07 Great Game Soundtracks from 2014http://www.gamefront.com/8-great-game-soundtracks-from-2014/
http://www.gamefront.com/8-great-game-soundtracks-from-2014/#commentsTue, 30 Dec 2014 01:51:16 +0000Phil Hornshawhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=295552Perhaps nothing is more important or more easily forgotten than the impact of music on the experience of playing a...

Perhaps nothing is more important or more easily forgotten than the impact of music on the experience of playing a video game. It’s often music and sound design that make an interactive experience truly memorable.

Game soundtracks are something special to behold — they’re longer, more involved and more diverse than, say, film soundtracks, because in an interactive experience, they usually have a whole lot more responsibility. They’re the anchor that keeps you emotionally tied to a scene, or the catalyst to get your heart pumping as the stakes rocket through the roof.

Below, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite soundtracks of the year (in no particular order) that offer some of gaming’s best, most interesting and most diverse music. But it’s in no way complete, so feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments below.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Let’s start with something we might consider standard: With an epic BioWare fantasy RPG comes an epic BioWare fantasy RPG soundtrack. Dragon Age: Inquisition’s music is appropriately epic, with sweeping marches and battle themes balanced against more introspective, violin-heavy pieces. This is a soundtrack to be paired with high adventure in a massive world, and composer Trevor Morris nails that feeling with every track. It’s also enormous, clocking in at more than 90 minutes of music.

The good news is, if you have the Digital Deluxe version of DA:I, you’ve got the soundtrack, too. Hit up the official website here for more info or to purchase a copy.

Far Cry 4

Like the Far Cry 3 soundtrack before it, Far Cry 4‘s music has a lot of jobs to fulfill. It has to convey the atmosphere of the Himalayan country of Kyrat, and it has to provide a backdrop for high-octane moments to which you can shoot dudes. Composer Cliff Martinez gets the former with haunting vocal tracks and mixes of instruments meant to give a reverent, almost mystical feel, capturing spaces like Kyrat’s temples and ancient landscapes. And then the album moves into helpings of high-beats-per-minute ass-kicking, chucking in things like a bit of dubstep and heavy percussion, and moves through all the moods Far Cry 4’s vast and diverse setting can create.

The high-tech future is at the center of Gods Will Be Watching, telling a story that encompasses space travel, hostage situations, horrific torture and alien planets. The soundtrack, then, has to be suitably science-fictiony, and Spanish composer Fingersplit meets that requirement by leaning on a dark collection of synth sounds and percussion. The computer-generated sound always swings away toward worried, mournful tracks even as they infuse energy in the proceedings with fast-paced rhythms and melodies.

Gods Will Be Watching is a combination of slower, more ambient songs and rising intensity, and as a soundtrack it works just as well away from the rest of the game as coupled with it. Snag it from Fingersplit’s Bandcamp page.

The Banner Saga

Stoic’s tragic Viking saga of traveling across deadly country requires a very particular sound, and the studio looked to Grammy nominated composer Austin Wintory to create it. Vocal work on The Banner Saga comes from the likes of artists such as Peter Hollens and Youtube sensation Malukah, while the soundtrack’s lyrical stylings draw from Norse proverbs and poetry.

Another album falling into the “sweeping epic” category is that of Civilization: Beyond Earth, which has the burden of channeling the feeling of starting and growing a colony on another world — literally the next step in the saga of humanity. Beyond Earth alternates between high orchestral tracks that convey the enormity of space, and ambient tracks that perfectly capture a feeling of exploring the unknown.

The spiffy thing about Civilization: Beyond Earth’s soundtrack is that it’s free with the game on Steam — just check the “Local Files” for the MP3s to start listening. It’s also available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon.

No More Room in Hell Original Soundtrack Vol. 1

No More Room in Hell might sound on paper a bit lighthearted and goofy — various characters somewhat recognizable from popular culture fight their way through zombie hordes in a multiplayer shooter in which cooperation is king. But the soundtrack created by Garrett “ThoughT” Lindquist is much more thoughtful, and sorrowful, than that premise might first suggest.

Music is a big part of the experience of iOS title The Sailor’s Dream, with many of the secrets of the game hidden within the lyrics of songs that are only unlocked by playing on certain days. Though The Sailor’s Dream subject matter is mysterious and occasionally dark, Simogo’s title is filled with lighthearted songs that build on the childhood dreams that make up game’s premise. It balances instrumental offerings with tracks sung by vocalist Stephanie Hladowski, and offers one of the more lighthearted soundtracks of the year.

It’s worth noting that there are probably a few soundtracks out there that deserve to be on this list. One worthy honorable mention that I haven’t had a chance to properly enjoy is Killer Instinct: Season One, which throws together a hearty mix of diverse tracks, but also doesn’t skimp on the dubstep and other action game staples. Find it over at Amazon.com.

And of course, we’re always in the market for more great game music. Leave your favorites in the comments below!

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/8-great-game-soundtracks-from-2014/feed/0Phil’s Top 5 Games of 2014http://www.gamefront.com/phils-top-5-games-of-2014/
http://www.gamefront.com/phils-top-5-games-of-2014/#commentsTue, 16 Dec 2014 23:31:31 +0000Phil Hornshawhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=294557Editor’s Note: All this week, we’ll be featuring the top 5 games of 2014 from each of our individual staffers,...

Editor’s Note: All this week, we’ll be featuring the top 5 games of 2014 from each of our individual staffers, culminating in our Game of the Year announcement next week. Stay tuned and check out Ron’s Top 5 right here!

Oh, 2014: the Year of the Hype. So many towering games finally saw their releases this year, only to stumble with bad launches and oversold ideas.

Building my Game of the Year list this year has been a struggle. I played so many games that I did so little for me, or that I thought were “good, but…”. There’s a whole slew of titles that were fun in one moment, infuriating in another, or — as was much more likely — simply lukewarm, tepid, and kinda dull.

Delving back into the list of games I’ve played this year, however, I did come away with some standouts. They’re decidedly not the biggest games of the year. They’re often hype-minimal. But in a year in which many games dodged taking risks or recycled much from the last console generation, these were the titles that stuck with me.

5. The Banner Saga

Stoic Games’ Kickstarted Viking tactical RPG is a game that makes you feel like you’re always losing — and I mean that in the best way possible. With your village in shambles and your people under threat from an ancient enemy, you set out to lead them to safety, your a huge caravan crossing a vast and snowy fantasy world. The sun has ceased to set and the end of the world seems nigh, and everyone looks to you to keep them alive.

The Banner Saga is an intense, and often tragic, game. Primarily it has players conducting turn-based battles on a grid-covered battlefield, managing a party of fighters and some bits of gear, and making decisions for the caravan in between fights. You have to keep everyone fed and rested, and you’ll run into story decision points repeatedly where your call can have life-or-death consequences.

The narrative thread at work in The Banner Saga is a strong one, and it expertly makes you wonder if you’re not the worst leader ever pretty much constantly. (This is a good thing.) Starving villagers and traitorous party members keep things lively, but ultimately it’s a game that sells a desperate atmosphere of encroaching despair, with some great tactical battles along the way. Plus its art style and soundtrack are gorgeous.

4. The Walking Dead – Season 2

I’m a sucker for Telltale Games’ brand of storytelling, and after the strong showing that was The Walking Dead – Season 1, I was pretty excited for more of the same. And the vast majority of Season 2 didn’t disappoint.

Telltale’s new protagonist, the young girl Clementine, is easily my favorite character from this year (and quite possibly ever), even with the many possible different Clementine iterations that can come out of the game’s choices. Like Telltale’s other titles, Season 2 is a light adventure game mostly focused on dialogue choices. Clementine’s story of how she finds a band of survivors and first becomes part of their group, and then its moral center, was something I found particularly engaging.

While the ending of Season 2 — while very powerful — weakened the rest of the story for me, I can’t get over how intense and fascinating I found each new episode as it dropped during the year. We need more Clementine, and I can’t wait to see what Telltale might have in mind for the continuation of the franchise.

3. Gods Will Be Watching

Gods Will Be Watching is a hard game. An adventure title made up of several one-scene scenarios that combine to tell a story, it constantly puts players in positions where there’s no clear winning. In one, you have to survive on an inhospitable planet by gathering food, keeping warm, and trying to fix your radio to get yourself rescued. In another, you have to withstand torture. Another asks you how you’ll deal with a group of hostages you’ve taken as you try to steal some important information.

All of the game’s scenarios are losing ones, in which you’ll eventually have to make sacrifices — especially because the game might wind up and bitch-slap you any time, thanks to random chances of failure. Sounds a lot like life, in fact. Gods Will Be Watching is a game that’s not afraid to be frustrating, difficult, and sometimes just shy of unwinnable, because its developers aren’t giving you a game to win, they’re using gameplay and storytelling to convey a feeling and deliver an experience. Although a patch offered easier difficulty levels if you’re too frustrated, the experience developer Deconstructeam wanted to convey requires playing it as it was originally intended.

As a game that wishes to affect its players in a particular way, Gods Will Be Watching is enormously successful.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/phils-top-5-games-of-2014/feed/1The Banner Saga 2 Revealed at The Game Awardshttp://www.gamefront.com/the-banner-saga-2-revealed-at-the-game-awards/
http://www.gamefront.com/the-banner-saga-2-revealed-at-the-game-awards/#commentsSat, 06 Dec 2014 04:06:07 +0000Stew Shearerhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=293500The Banner Saga 2 has been confirmed for release in 2015. The sequel was unveiled this evening in a teaser...

The sequel was unveiled this evening in a teaser trailer shown off at the 2014 Game Awards show. While the teaser itself was brief, it did reveal several interesting things about the new game. Most notably, it looks as though it will be adding a fourth race in addition to the humans, Varl and Dredge. The new race has yet to be named but appears to have blue skin and pointed ears like you might find on a classic dark elf.

The Banner Saga 2 has, of course, been in development for some time. That said, up until today, its creators at Stoic hadn’t released much information about when the follow-up game would be released. The original Banner Saga will also be ported to the PlayStation 4 next year as well, presumably before The Banner Saga 2 launches.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/the-banner-saga-2-revealed-at-the-game-awards/feed/0King Candy’s Trademark Attempt at Crushing The Banner Sagahttp://www.gamefront.com/king-candys-attempt-at-crushing-the-saga-trademark/
http://www.gamefront.com/king-candys-attempt-at-crushing-the-saga-trademark/#commentsTue, 24 Jun 2014 15:07:48 +0000Ryan Morrisonhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=277105Editor’s Note: Bar Games is GameFront’s new bi-weekly column series addressing the finer points of the law as it relates...

Editor’s Note: Bar Games is GameFront’s new bi-weekly column series addressing the finer points of the law as it relates to current events within the video game industry.

The attention grabbing headlines of “King Trademarks Candy” have come and gone from most media outlets, but the devastating aftermath still very much remains.

I work daily with game developers, ranging from a guy in his garage with a dream, to mid-level studios putting out their 20th game. Each is now left terrified they will be the next victim in a growing fad: An overnight success like King, with seemingly no respect for the industry it’s a part of, coming in with a large bank account and bullying the little guy.

For those who forget, King, the makers of Candy Crush Saga, tried to trademark both the terms “Candy” and “Saga.” They then used these trademarks to do things like prevent developer Stoic from registering the name of its game, The Banner Saga, in an excellent example of bad PR.

First, let’s chat a bit about the basics of trademarks so we’re all on the same page. Despite the common vernacular, copyrights, trademarks, and patents are three very different things. Copyrights protect your art assets, scripts, and code. Patents protect, mostly, inventions. And both are irrelevant to this conversation. But fret not, we’ll address these in later articles.

Trademarks protect your game title, company name, color patterns, and logo. They are used to protect against consumer confusion: when you see an Apple logo on a computer, you know Apple made that product. I can’t open up a computer company tomorrow and call myself Apple, because it’s trademarked. Trademarks are the shield Apple has to prevent me from posing as them and “riding their coattails” to success. More importantly, it’s the defense consumers have from being “tricked.” Trademarks are there for the public good, assuring you that you are buying the quality you expect from that mark; that a Coke will be a Coke.

To do this, trademarks need to be strong, but also reasonable. Therefore, they last forever, but can be knocked down if too powerful. Apple will always have its mark, and you, as a consumer, can always rest assured that an Apple logo on a computer shows its source. However, if a trademarked word becomes so popular that it is used as a generic term for something, you lose protection. For example, “zipper” and “phillips head screwdriver” used to be trademarks, but now consumers just consider them words for a thing. They’re too commonly used now, and any trademark protection the original owners had is gone. As per our example, if people started calling computers “Apples,” then Apple would lose its trademark.

Trademarks also offer protection in different classes of goods. That means Apple own the term “Apple” in the computer industry, not the food industry. Since Apple is a descriptive term in the food world, no one in the food industry can own it. It’s the same rules as being too commonly used that we discussed in the paragraph above. Simply put, Apple branded apples cannot exist under American law.

That leads to where we are now, with King claiming ownership over the singular words “Candy” and “Saga”. This means King believes they own the use of each word in titles in the video game industry. Legally, this is supposed to be to prevent consumer confusion between games, but in reality, it’s used so King gets to be in control of who uses either word in their game titles.

Yes, King dropped its trademark application for Candy in the US after a lot of pressure from the gaming community, but it still owns it in the European Union. Further, and much worse in my opinion, King has successfully held its claim over the term “Saga”. This was shown in its victorious effort to stop Stoic from registering “The Banner Saga” as a trademark.

If you aren’t aware, Candy Crush Saga is a basic re-skinning of the same “match three” puzzle games we’ve seen a hundred times, played primarily on mobile devices. The Banner Saga is a Viking epic, told through a role-playing game, available only on PC. They’re two incredibly different games, available on different platforms, played by different people, and concerning different subject matter, and it’s really unreasonable to think someone might confuse one with the other.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/king-candys-attempt-at-crushing-the-saga-trademark/feed/14King.com Drops Opposition to The Banner Saga, Candyswipehttp://www.gamefront.com/king-com-drops-opposition-to-the-banner-saga-candyswipe/
http://www.gamefront.com/king-com-drops-opposition-to-the-banner-saga-candyswipe/#commentsThu, 17 Apr 2014 21:50:24 +0000Jeff Millshttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=270885King.com stops its pursuit of trademark infringement against Banner Saga and Candyswipe. You may remember back in January when the...

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King.com stops its pursuit of trademark infringement against Banner Saga and Candyswipe.

You may remember back in January when the Candy Crush developer filed a trademark for “Candy” and challenged the trademark for “Saga”. The dispute certainly made noise among mobile game developers, as well as the IGDA which called their tactics “predatory” and “overreaching”.

But now, King.com had decided to cease its trademark claim after an agreement with Runsome Apps, the developer of Candy Swipe and Stoic Studios, the developer of The Banner Saga.

“I am happy to announce that I have amicably resolved my dispute with King over my CandySwipe trademark and that I am withdrawing my opposition to their mark and they are withdrawing their counter claim against mine,” Runsome Apps founder Albert Ransom stated. “I have learned that they picked the Candy Crush name before I released my game and that they were never trying to take my game away. Both our games can continue to coexist without confusing players.”

Stoic Studios posted a similar statement on their website that an agreement with King.com has been reached. “Stoic is pleased to have come to an agreement with King regarding Stoic’s The Banner Saga trademark, which enables both parties to protect their respective trademarks now and in the future,” posted Myll_Erik.

What’s the agreement? Who knows. King.com didn’t appear to have a strong case if they were trying to copyright “candy” and “saga”. In this writers opinion, it screams settlement and opens the doors to future frivolous patent challenges.

King.com’s chief executive officer posted a statement in January on the company’s website, which claimed King.com had to protect its trademark even when it didn’t think another game necessarily might be confused with it, as in the case of The Banner Saga. The IGDA statement, however, says King.com’s actions contradict its CEO’s claims:

“While we understand and respect the appropriate exercise of Trademark rights, King’s overreaching filing in its application for the Trademark for its game ‘Candy Crush Saga,’ and its predatory efforts to apply that mark to each separate word contained in that name, are in opposition to the values of openness and cooperation we support industry wide, and directly contradict the statement King’s CEO, Riccardo Zacconi, made on 27 January (http://about.king.com/about/our-approach-to-ip).”

The announcement comes after King.com filed paperwork today for a $500 million initial public offering, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Game Front has reached out to King.com and the IDGA for comment on the situation.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the International Game Developers Association as the International Game Designers Association. It has since been corrected.

There’s been nothing but drama surrounding Candy Crush Saga dev King.com this week, first with stories of its ambitious trademark moves and then with the claim of an indie developer who says they cloned something he did after spurning King for a rival publisher. The latter is just a game of he said/she said at this point, though, and King issued a statement today to GamesBeat.

““King does not clone other peoples’ games,” a company rep said. “King believes that [intellectual property] — both our own IP and that of others — is important and should be properly protected. Like any prudent company, we take all appropriate steps to protect our IP in a sensible and fair way. At the same time, we are respectful of the rights and IP of other developers.”

They did take down the allegedly offending title, Pac-Avoid, from royalgames.com. King said they did so “for the avoidance of doubt” as it was coded by a third party rather than in-house.

Dev Stolen Goose claims Pac-Avoid was cloned from its game Scamperghost in 2009, with the clone released shortly after because Stole Goose was tipped off about the clone. That whole story can be found here. Taking a side on this from teh presented info, by the way, is what we call “jumping to conclusions.” So don’t do that.

King filed legal opposition to Stoic’s trademark filing of The Banner Saga earlier this week, claiming it infringes on the Candy Crush Saga brand. Stoic issued their response via a statement on The Banner Saga blog (emphasis added):

Two years ago, the three of us at Stoic set out to make an epic viking game: The Banner Saga. We did, and people loved it, so we’re making another one. We won’t make a viking saga without the word Saga, and we don’t appreciate anyone telling us we can’t.

King.com claims they’re not attempting to prevent us from using The Banner Saga, and yet their legal opposition to our trademark filing remains.

We’re humbled by the outpouring of support and honored to have others stand with us for the right to their own Saga. We just want to make great games.

Fight the good fight, Stoic. And hey, PopCap, how about filing legal opposition to Candy Crush because it’s a ripoff of Bejeweled? It evidently wouldn’t be the first time King.com cloned another game.

If you want to show King.com just how ridiculous the trademarking of common words is, get involved in the Candy Jam. It’s a game jam launched in honor of King.com and tasks creators with making games featuring candy and using the word “candy” as many times as possible. Sweet.

Kickstarter games wear influences on their sleeves by necessity. The best way to attract potential backers is by promising to emulate something those backers already like. The result can start to feel like pastiche, a kind of game design gumbo, with familiar tropes and features combined willy-nilly and then liberally seasoned with hype.

At first glance, The Banner Saga appears similar — Final Fantasy Tactics! XCOM! Norse Mythology! Classic Animation! — but the result is surprisingly cohesive, a purposeful, considered piece of game design in which every element fits together seamlessly. It’s an indie triumph, and a tribute to the talents of upstart outfit Stoic Games.

Stoic was founded by three former BioWare developers. Though designer Alex Thomas and programmer John Watson do fine work, it’s artist Arnie Jorgensen who has received most of the attention, and for good reason. The Banner Saga simply looks gorgeous, from its epic backdrops to its striking, colorful characters, whose hand-drawn faces express more emotion and pathos than most state-of-the-art AAA character models. The art style is inspired by three titans of mid-20th century animation. Disney artist Eyvind Earle, best-known for his work on Sleeping Beatuy, informs The Banner Saga’s sweeping landscapes, full of jagged, wintry peaks and fantastical, stylized foliage; the influence of Ralph Bakshi and Don Bluth (another Disney alum) can be seen in the arresting character portraits, depicted using a hard-line drawing style not often used in video games.

The Banner Saga uses Norse mythology as an obvious jumping-off point, with plenty of longships, mead halls and other trappings of Viking lore. It’s not a rote adaptation, though, nor is it freighted with the kind of portentous blather common to most fantasy settings. After a brief text introduction, players are thrust immediately into an arctic world populated by hardy humans, horned giants known as “Varl,” and their common enemy, the relentless, unfeeling Dredge, which transpose a kind of robotic hivemind into the game’s Norse context. Stoic trusts people to pay attention and work things out for themselves, aided by carefully chosen bits of heavily accented voice acting, a bevy of consonant-heavy Scandinavian spellings, and the beautiful mis-en-scene.

Avoiding long passes of exposition, Stoic lets the characters speak naturally, establishing the uneasy alliance between humans and Varl and the strange, apocalyptic circumstances: the sun has stopped in the sky, and the Dredge — thought to be vanquished for good — have reappeared in great numbers. Conversations play out in text, between portraits that remain mostly static, but the sharp writing and excellent art ensure a satisfying dramatic weight, no matter the subject. Players are offered a range of different dialogue responses to choose from — the BioWare pedigree is clear — and what you choose to do and say has far-reaching consequences.

The narrative alternates between two storylines. In the first, a group of Varl — indomitable, long-lived warriors — escort a snotty human prince to the Varl capital, hoping to address the burgeoning crisis. In the second, a man named Rook — single father and expert hunter — becomes the de facto leader of a group of refugees (including his daughter Alette, precocious with a bow) as they flee the growing Dredge menace. The two storylines intersect and diverge multiple times, and the game carefully switches the player’s perspective to provide a broader view of the plot.